If you’re calling in a tip to CrimeStoppers, be sure to be as specific as possible with the information you know and how you know it....

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CrimeStoppers tips

If you’re calling in a tip to CrimeStoppers, be sure to be as specific as possible with the information you know and how you know it.

The more detail that is provided, the more likely that the tip could lead to resolution of a case. Tips can be called in to CrimeStoppers at 673-9000 or by text to 274637 with “tips731” at the beginning of the message.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cold case stories highlight an unsolved crime every month as part of an effort by the Greater Peoria Area CrimeStoppers and Peoria police to solicit fresh information on dormant investigations.

PEORIA — The story of Almarty Grant’s death is a familiar one: A life of gangs, drugs and street violence ultimately overcame the strides he had made to better himself through work and education.

But that doesn’t make his mother’s lingering pain over the loss ordinary. More than two years after Grant was gunned down in South Peoria, she still thinks of him daily and wonders whether his killer will ever be caught.

“His case is not solved, and it’s been so long,” Brenda Grant said one recent evening on the porch of the North Valley home where she relocated from Kansas. “I’m the victim of a homicide case, too. I just want the case resolved.”

The slaying in the spring of 2012 is being highlighted this month by Peoria police and CrimeStoppers in an effort to bring forward new information about the case.

Almarty Grant was a 26-year-old father of two young boys in May 2012 when he was involved in two documented instances of gunfire in quick succession. The first was just days before the incident that claimed his life.

He was with members of the Zone 4 street gang about 11 p.m. May 24, 2012, in front of a home in the 1800 block of West Kettelle Street when two or three individuals approached the impromptu gathering, according to police.

Shots rang out — at least nine or 10 shell casings were found at the scene — and two people were hit. Edward Jackson ran down the street to the front porch of a home in the 1800 block of West Butler Street, where a resident helped him until paramedics arrived. Jackson survived.

Almarty Grant ran to a parking lot in the 400 block of South Western Avenue, where he collapsed and was found by police. He was taken by ambulance to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about half an hour later.

“He was just saying, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’ ” said Det. Jason Spanhook, who was one of the first officers to arrive on scene that night and is now following up on the case. “He was going into shock.”

All the shell casings found at the scene were the same caliber but from different manufacturers. It was never clear whether more than one person was firing the shots. But police are confident that Almarty Grant was a collateral casualty.

Page 2 of 2 - “All indications I have are that he was not the intended target,” Spanhook said.

Brenda Grant said no matter who the bullets had been meant to strike, the outcome represented the way street life can sneak back into someone’s life. After serving time in prison, her son had gone back to school to learn how to be a welder. He was working toward change when he was gunned down.

“He was selling drugs, doing the bad stuff, but he had turned his life around,” Brenda Grant said. “I believe people on the streets were jealous that he was turning his life around and wasn’t in the gang anymore.”

Her son’s effort to change just before losing his life proved to be one of the most difficult aspects of his death to understand, his mom said — along with the fact that his killer still hasn’t been held accountable more than two years later.

“Marty doesn’t have a reason to be in that graveyard,” Brenda Grant said. “Why can’t we find the person who hurt my son?”